


Lost In Time

by CharlesOberonn



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Depression, Gen, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-20
Updated: 2017-05-20
Packaged: 2018-11-01 02:11:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10912212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CharlesOberonn/pseuds/CharlesOberonn
Summary: Time is a force unequaled in its ability to destroy and erase. And yet, it is fragile all the same. The story of a gem broken by time, who breaks time in return. And the quest to put it back together.





	1. Lost At Sea

"Peridot, are you sure this is safe?" Steven asked into his walkie-talkie. He was currently suspended several hundred meters above the sea, on the back of Lapis Lazuli who was holding a rope made out of water and seemed bored. Hanging off the rope a few dozen meters below him was Peridot, scoping the sea around them.

"Peridot?" Steven asked again after he got no answer. He sighed. "Crystal 1, do you copy?"

"Crystal 1, copy." Peridot answered, giggling to herself.

"Are the codenames really necessary, copy?"

"Yes they are!" Peridot yelled passionately. "Copy."

With the rope tied around her waist, Peridot kept scanning her surroundings, and occasionally glanced at a rectangular device she held in her hands. "Crystal 2, do you copy? Please lower me another 3.2 meters."

"I'm not going to answer to Crystal 2, Peridot." Lapis said, a complete lack of enthusiasm in her voice.

"Stevenbomb, do you copy? Please tell Crystal 2 to use the codenames." Peridot's voice echoed through Steven's walkie-talkie.

"Just do what she says please?" Steven looked at Lapis, who begrudgingly lowered the rope another few meters.

"Okay, stop. Perfect! Hehehe!" Peridot's giggle was heard through the walkie-talkie. She fiddled with some of the buttons on her device and then pulled on the rope. "Raise me up!"

"Are we done?" Lapis asked as she started pulling Peridot upwards. She shifted to standing upwards and cradled her arms for the smaller Peridot to sit in her embrace like a big baby.

"Not quite." Peridot fiddled with the device one last time. "Take us to these coordinates." She showed her taller companion a series of blips on a map.

Lapis observed the map for a few long seconds before she looked at Peridot again. "Yeah, I can't read that."

"Ugh!" Peridot groaned. She pointed towards a point in the east. "Over there!"

"Whatever you say, Barnmate 1." Lapis said and smiled slyly. Steven chuckled. She started flying over to the east, Steven on her back and Peridot below her, held in her arms.

"Okay okay, over here. Go down." she pointed Lapis's chin to look over at a particular spot in the middle of the ocean.

Lapis started descending towards the spot, the wind blowing through all three's hair. From up close, you could see what the spot was. It was a whirlpool in the middle of the ocean. From afar it was just a blue circle in a field of blue, but the closer they got, the whirlpool's true size was revealed.

They were floating over the surface of the water, by the edge of whirlpool. It was enormous, bigger than a stadium and almost as deep.

"Peridot..." Steven said, his eyes glued to the awesome scale of the whirlpool. "Are you sure this is where your limbs enhancers are? It seems really dangerous."

Peridot's eyes narrowed, she started right at the heart of the storm. "I am sure. I calculated Earth's currents from the day I got poofed to today. And my technology scanner shows faint signals coming from there. It has to be where they ended up." she pointed at the very center of the whirlpool. "Don't worry about their well being. They're well crafted, they can survive much stronger currents."

"I'm more worried about our well being!" Steven shouted as the sound of the whirlpool was drowning out his voice. He just hoped this was gonna be the only part of him that would be drowning that day.

"That's why I brought Lapis over." she pointed towards the gem holding her in her arms. "We practiced this. Right, babe?" she asked, and Lapis nodded.

She closed her eyes and started to concentrate. She strained the most of her ability and the water around them started transforming. Below them, the violent surface of the water became calm, and then seemed solid. Lapis dropped both Steven and Peridot on the water. After losing their balance for a bit, they found footing and could stand.

Lapis continued, making the swirling of the storm spin slower and slower until its center stopped spinning. She swung her arms forward and the surface Steven and Peridot were standing on extended forward and downward towards the center of the whirlpool, in the shape of turqouize staircases. And with one final move, Lapis shouted as she raised her arms up ward. The "ground" around Peridot and Steven shook as the water started rising upwards. The entire whirlpool was levatating in the air. The staircases was all that remained on the ground, and they now led downwards torwards the exposed bottom of the ocean.

"Come on! Let's go!" Peridot said excitedly. She ran down the step with enthusiasm and ease, skipping steps as she looked both at the bottom of the sea around her and the device in her hand. Steven followed her cautiously, his unstable legs descending the stairs slowly one step at a time.

Eventually, the two of them met up in the bottom of the sea. It was dark and moist, and whatever light they did have was distorted by the ocean water above them. Around them was like an a dragon's hoard, a trove of items and shipwrecks.

"The whirlpool must've pulled everything down here." Peridot's gem started emitting light as she looked around. Steven pulled a flashlight from his cheeseburger backpack as well. "This would've never happened on a Gem planet. The empire cured our galaxy of environmental aberrations like this."

"Well, I think it's pretty neat." Steven kicked around a pile of misshapen clay pots, revealing a rusty ancient gear mechanism below the pile. Among other piles and cluttered around on the sandy ground were cannons, swords, machine parts, strange clumps of metal and even toys. "Look, an old school Guy!" he picked up a small doll. "I think my dad used to play with these when he was my age."

"Yes, I do have to admit, the aberrations on this planet have been quite fascinating. Worth keeping around." Peridot looked back at Steven and smiled at him, he squinted his eyes as her light blinded him. "I guess I am one of them now. An aberration. Out of place on the Earth."

"Don't worry, you're still new here. A little more time and you'll feel right at home!" Steven smiled. "Then you won't be an aberration, you'd be a gooderration."

Peridot laughed out loud, and her laugh echoed through the underwater space. "I get it! There's no such thing as a gooderration, it's a fusion of two words!" she continued laughing. "Garnet explained why that can be a good thing." she smiled knowingly and smugly, proud of her own knowledge.

"Did you find what you were looking for?" Steven asked. "I'm finding a lot of cool retro toys over here." he said as he stuffed his bag with plastic and wooden toys.

"Hold on, I think I've got it." Peridot grunted tiny little grunts as she dug around a pile of old computer parts until she pulled out a small green finger. "Aa-ahhh!" she smiled wide from ear to ear. "I found it!" she exclaimed, jumping up and down in front of Steven. "Come on, help me get the rest!"

For the next few minutes Peridot and Steven dug around the pile until they finally gathered the whole set. Two arms, 10 fingers, one leg and one footless leg. Peridot laid them down on the floor in the appropriate positions. "Steven, the final piece please." she gestured towards him, and he started digging into his backpack. He pulled out Peridot's foot and put it down next to the appropriate leg.

Peridot and Steven watched as the pieces of Peridot's limb enhancers started humming and glowing, and then moving. They assembled together into four complete limbs, and the set was complete. Peridot eyes were positively glowing the entire time, and she was emitting adorable excited noises.

"Finally." she exclaimed as she picked them up. "Ta-daaa!" she lifted them up above her head as Steven clapped.

"Bravo! Bravo!" he cheered her on. From the walkie-talkie, Lapis' voice could be heard cheering them on as well.

"Come on, let's go home." Peridot said as she put the limbs up to her forehead. One by one, they glowed white and shrunk down into her triangular gem.

"Are you not going to try them on?" Steven asked.

"No, I don't know if they're safe to use yet. I need to test them first, and make the appropriate modifications. It's gonna be hard using your planet's primitive tools, but so was finding them, so I think I can pull it off, so to speak."

"Yes, I believe in you, Peri." Steven gave her a thumbs up.

"Thanks!" she smiled back at him.

The two turned back and started climbing up the watery stairs Lapis made them. As they were ascending, they looked back at the treasure trove they were leaving behind. "Do you notice how organized it all looks?" Steven asked. "Every pile had a different kind of stuff in it. Almost like somebody sorted them."

"Yes, it was very convenient. Let us thank this individual at another time." Peridot continued climbing.

But then something swam past them in the wall of water to their left. It swam incredibly fast, like a shadowy blur crossing their field of vision in a fraction of a second. "What was that?" Peridot stopped, her voice was cracking.

"What are you doing?!" Lapis urged them to continue from the walkie-talkie. But something cut her off. The walkie-talkie went silent.

"Lapis?" Steven asked, panicking a little. He looked up, they were still a way to go to reach the surface. "Let's run!" he grabbed Peridot by the hand and the two of them starting rushing up the stairs as fast as they could. They stopped for a second as the shadowy blur swam above them them. "Ignore it!" Steven urged Peridot and they kept running a little more before they lost their balance.

The watery stairs on which they were running started shaking and breaking apart, small cubes of solid water were falling down into the deep abyss below them, and the walls were shaking with violent ripples, threatening to collapse and flood the two any moment.

"Faster! Faster! I can't hold it much longe-" Lapis' voice was heard again, but she was cut off.

Peridot and Steven were running as fast they as they could, but they were losing ground, the stairs were slowly dissolving into nothing and the ceiling was about to fall on them, it seemed like they couldn't make it.

Just as they were about to reach the top of the stairs, they saw the true nature of the shadowy blur. It wasn't just one creature, it was an entire school. Dozens of small fish-like corrupted gems, with a light blue shard inside each of them. They were swimming as one, and ocassionally as individuals, as they circled around Lapis, jumping at her. She did her best to repel them, but some of them managed to attach themselves onto her wings, and swim up to her back, forcing her to try and knock them off physically.

"Lapis!" Peridot cried out as she passed Steven in trying to reach the distraught blue gem.

"Don't worry about me! Just get out of there!" Lapis shouted back as suddenly a massive blue tentacle emerged from the water and grabbed onto her leg. She screamed as she was drawn closer to the surface of the water.

Steven made it to the surface and he rushed towards the tentacle. Pulling out his shield, he tried to bash it on its side, but the tentacle didn't budge. All the while, more of the tiny fish gems emerged from the water and started swarming the two smaller gems.

"Peridot!" Steven cried out as he shook off the small fish and ran towards his green friend, but was stopped when another tentacle got in his way and tried to grab him.

"Oh no you don't!" he heard Peridot's voice from behind the tentacle as the green gem ran around and grabbed onto the tendril, pulling it down with all of her weight, which wasn't much. But it was enough to distract the creature as it tried to shake her off. "Steven! Go get Lapis!" Peridot cried out to him.

"No! Help Peridot!" Lapis shouted to him from above.

He looked confused, turning his head back and forth between the two gems. In his moment of indecision, the creature leapt out of the water.

It was a massive jellyfish, with hundreds of fish-gem swimming inside of its head. The three gems were all sitting on top of it, trying to hold on as dozens of tentacles reached towards them.

"Steven!" Peridot shouted, still trying to hold onto the tentacle. "Earth Jellyfish are made of water, right?"

"Yes!" he answered. "I don't see how that helps us!"

"And Earth water is conductive to electricity, right?"

"Oh, I see now!" he shouted and gave her another thumbs up.

"When I say 'go'. I want you to jump up and grab onto Lapis.

"I'm not leaving you down here!" Lapis shouted as she struggled to ward off the oncoming tentacles.

"You better not! You're gonna come pick me up!" Peridot shouted as she pulled out a single technological finger out of her gem.

"Okay now, go!" she shouted and watched as Steven jumped onto Lapis back and the two of them flew up away from the forest of tentacles. With a decisive move, she shoved the finger inside the gooey jellyfish head and activated it. A bolt of electricity circulated throughout the entire creature, electrifying it. Peridot screamed as she tried to hold on to her form as the electricity flowed through her as well.

The jellyfish creature stopped flailing, eventually quieting down. The hundreds of fish gems started swimming of out of it as it slowly sand into the ocean below.

Peridot was exhausted, she collapsed onto her knees and looked up at Lapis and Steven, who were already flying to do pick her up.

But much to her horror, just before they made it, the jellyfish jerked back to life for one second. The tentacle she just grabbed onto was now grabbing onto her. Lapis and Steven screamed in horror as the creature lifted Peridot up through the air and with a single motion, threw her away across the ocean.

All they could do is her body get further into the distance as she was thrown past the horizon into regions unknown.


	2. The Lost Temple

It took Lapis and Steven only seconds to start going after Peridot. Only a few minutes to reach the region where they believed she fell in. But after hours of searching she was nowhere to be found.

"Lapis, you look really bad." Steven said as he looked up from the bottom of the sea up a well of water Lapis created above him. He himself didn't look so good, after hours of searching he was covered with sand and drenched in seawater. The sun was getting lower in the sky, and the world was painted a bright orange.

Lapis looked pale and in distress. Her wings flapped weakly and her body wriggled from side to side as she tried to stay afloat and keep the hole Steven descended into open. "It's fine." she grunted and her voice echoed through the walkie-talkie. "Just keep searching."

"She's not here." Steven said, his voice tired and numb. Lapis sighed and descended down to pick Steven up before soaring upwards onto the surface again.

"Okay, so which area didn't we search? Maybe we missed her over east? Do you even know where we are?" Lapis' voice sounded frantic and hoarse. "Maybe she's floating somewhere waiting for our help." a few tears started welling down her eyes. "Peridot?" she screamed into the walkie-talkie, but it sounded more like a whisper. "Peridot?" she screamed again, but her voice faded completely mid-word.

"Lapis, it's okay... we're going to find her. We just need to rest." Steven patted the blue gem's shoulder gently. "Let's go home, okay? We'll find her tomorrow. We'll even get the rest of the gems to help us."

Lapis didn't respond, she kept wailing and crying as she strained her eyes shut. She took a deep breath and started opening another hole in the ocean. But mid-way, her muscles gave in and she grunted as the water rushed back into the hole. "I need..." she was panting. "To find her!"

"Lapis!" Steven grabbed tight onto her shoulder. "It's not gonna help Peridot if all three of us get lost in the ocean! You have to rest." Steven frowned. Lapis looked back at him, tears flowing down her face. "Peridot is strong, she can make it."

"Okay... Tomorrow." Lapis nodded and turned back, flying into the horizon.

The fly back home took longer than usual, and was uncomfortably quiet. Lapis turned back to look at where they left Peridot at least once a minute, and Steven had to keep reminding her to look straight ahead. After a while he gave up, and he started looking back as well. After that long flight, the outline of Beach City could be seen just above the horizon. It was the middle of the night, the small town was lit up by streetlights. But the lighthouse that now served as Peridot's residence was dark, with no green gem to turn the light on.

Lapis looked down at the lighthouse and started flying towards it.

"Lapis, what are you doing? You house is that way!" Steven pointed at the cave down by the bay, where Lapis made her new residence, but Lapis ignored him, diving down onto the top perch of the lighthouse.

"Why did you land here?" Steven asked, he looked around the lighthouse, which was unnaturally dark. Lapis, with determination and will, entered into the building.

"Lapis..." Steven whispered. "We should be here, Peridot doesn't like when we touch her stuff..." Steven reluctantly followed her into the dark interior. He searched around in the dark, trying not to stumble up on anything as he looked for a light switch of sorts.

Eventually he found it, but he switched it on, nothing happened. Then, slowly, the entire room began glowing with neon green light and various displays started lighting up. "Woah..." in front of him was a low-tech recreation of the interior of the ship Peridot arrived on Earth on. Holographic screens were replaced by regular screens and touch screens, telepathic keyboards with regular keyboards, and florescent lights replaced the mysterious glow of the green gems in Peridot's now defunct control panel. Steven even saw some pieces of the old ship he cleared months ago repurposed as decorations. On the floor, thousands of screws, buttons and wires entangled together across the different screens, under the desks and into outlets.

Lapis was already touching everything she could, trying to figure something out in the mess. "There has to be something here to help us find her." she flipped through switches, and typed random phrases into the keyboards, but nothing happened.

"Lapis, what are you doing?" Steven rubbed his eye and yawned again. He walked over to her and tried yanking her off the computers, but she held his head with her hand, pushing her back.

"I'm gonna save her, Steven!" Lapis exclaimed, an air of desperation on her voice.

"Lapis, you need to calm down."

"You don't understand..." Lapis cried out.

"I want to save her too! But it's not gonna work like this. We have to call the gems, they'll help us. Pearl is a tech wizard almost like Peridot, she could manage to find something."

"But it's not Pearl's fault that she's gone."

"Lapis..."

"Don't 'Lapis' me... it's true." Lapis slammed her hand against one of Peridot's desks.

"Lapis it's not your fault."

"You're just saying that, but it's not true. You can't just say whatever you want to cheer people up, Steven!"

"But-"

"No, Steven! You can't peptalk your way out of this. Peridot is gone, and it doesn't matter how peace loving or diplomatic we are, negotiating isn't going to bring her back! We need to actually take responsibility for our actions and do something!" Lapis screamed.

A long silence filled the lighthouse, Lapis' scream could still be heard echoing down the steps of the lighthouse.

"Let's go to sleep, Lapis."

"I'm not leaving this lighthouse, Steven."

"And I'm not leaving you." Steven said.

"Good." Lapis pouted as she came back to fiddling with the computers.

"Good." Steven grumbled as he walked down the stairs to lower floor of the lighthouse, where there was a set up of comfortable couches and some blankets. Steve then grabbed a pillow and a blanket and climbed onto one of the couches. He closed his eyes, trying to forget for just a moment the events of the day, and to ignore the noise Lapis was making upstairs.

Steven's dreams were interrupted by a weird buzzing and beeping noise noise . He shuffled uncomfortably in his sleep until he woke up. He checked his phone to see if it was the source of the noise, but his phone was silent. With his eyes still half-closed, he looked up to realize the source of the sound came from upstairs, the top floor of the lighthouse.

He got off the uncomfortable couch and dragged his feet up the stairs. Careful not to trip on any of Peridot's wires, he entered the green gem's chamber, covering his eyes to shield them from the morning light that filled the room. The first thing he saw was Lapis sleeping on the floor, the light reflecting off of the gold specks on her cheeks like a thousand tiny stars.

The beeping noise was stronger up here, and Steven could make up its source. It was the speaker system underneath the largest screen in Peridot's chamber. The screen above it was flashing as well, with the words 'INCOMING CALL' flashing in bright green text. Steven's eyes opened wide as he saw the caller's identity written in smaller letters underneath the flashing words. 'Peridot calling'

"Lapis! Lapis wake up!" he rushed towards his blue and gold friend and started shaking her. He heard the sleeping gem whimper as she shuffled awake.

"Look!" he pointed at the screen, and Lapis' reaction to the words on the screen was immediate.

Using her wings to quickly levitate off the ground and onto her feet, she skipped between the wires and processors and onto the large keyboard in front of the screen. "Steven! What do I do?" she started panicking and pushing buttons randomly, trying to answer the call.

"Here, I'll get it!" Steven rushed forward and pressed the 'Enter' key. The call was answered. The words disappeared in favour of a picture of Peridot. Steven recognized the picture, it was taken during his and Peridot's visit in Funland arcade.

"Peridot?" Steven asked cautiously. There was a silence. "Are you okay? Where are you?" he asked.

"Um... hi, Steven." he heard a voice respond. It was undeniably Peridot's voice, but it was different. It was weaker and lower in pitch. The raspiness of her voice was gone in favour a smoother but quieter demeanour. She sounded so very sad, like she was just done crying. 

"Peridot! Are you okay? Please answer us!" Lapis screamed into the mic stand by the keyboard.

"Ah! Lapis!" Peridot could be heard screaming in surprise from the other end. "You scared me. Yes, I'm okay, sort of... listen..." her voice became quieter again. "It's complicated. I need you to come to the Sunken Temple. Take the Warp Pad from Steven's house." her words sounded rehearsed. "I'll explain everything there."

"Peridot?" Steven asked. "Is that where you are? What happened? Are you hurt? The sunken temple is full of water, isn't it?" he asked a barrage of questions, but Peridot cut off the call without answering any of them.

The sound of a disconnected call rung loud through the lighthouse. Steven pressed the 'Esc' key and then turned to look at Lapis. She looked like she just ran a marathon, her eyes were a bit sunken in and her dark blue skin was a bit pale. The gold patterns on her skin didn't seems quite as glowing.

 "Lapis?" Steven's smile faded as he looked at his friend. "Is something wrong? I thought you'd be happier."

Lapis didn't respond for a full few seconds. She just looked out the window into the wide sea. "Let's go."

After a bit of preparations, including a shower for Steven and some time to reflect for Lapis, the two were ready to depart. Steven's house was empty, as his three gem guardians were currently away on a mission for a few days. Steven considered calling them, telling them what was going on, but he wasn't so sure himself. It'd be better if he waited for them to come back before telling them.

Steven pulled on the straps of his backpack and stepped onto the warp pad. "Lapis, are you ready?"

Lapis stood up and walked onto the pad as well. "Yes, I'm ready." but her step wan't as confident or graceful as it used to be.

"Lapis..."

"Something is wrong, Steven. I can feel it. Peridot needs us."

"Yes, exactly." Steven replied with a umph to his tone. "Let's do this."

And with that, they were off. The light burst through the air from the warp pad and carried them into the ether.

"Steven, what did you say about the temple being full of water?" Lapis asked as they were flying up through the warp paths.

"Well, about a year ago, before I released you, we went on a mission to this time temple thingie under the sea. But then I picked out one of the time thingies from inside and the whole thing collapsed. Well, and there was that one thing with my clones collapsing into water after destroying the water thingie."

Lapis stopped to think for just a moment. "Huh."

"It's okay though, I got a plan just in case it's still full of water." Steven opened his backpack and showed its contents to Lapis. Inside was a full set of scuba diving gear.

"Shouldn't you have put that on before we got onto the warp pad."

Steven blushed as he realized his mistake. He quickly took a deep breath of air as they were about to arrive.

Luckily for him, and confusingly, he didn't need to hold his breath, as when they arrived, the temple was not full of water. In fact, it was exactly as Steven remembered it from a year ago. All of the hourglasses were there, and the air was dry. Or at least, that what it was for the first second of their visit. A second after that, as though the entire temple changed in an instant, everything seemed different. The hourglasses were arranged in a completely different way, and their sand was connected in a complicated series of tubes that connected to a weird crystal contraption the size of a small car in the middle of the temple. And a second after that, the crystal was gone and the temple was back to normal. Every few seconds the temple switched back and forth between the two states.

But in both states, a small figure stood in front in the middle of the temple, looking at them.

"Peridot!" Steven rushed forward towards her, but he was stopped by a sudden force field preventing him from stepping off the warp pad.

The figure walked forward towards them, and as she stepped out of the shadows, it was revealed to indeed be Peridot. But she was not herself. Her skin wasn't the lively grass green it was, instead being a pale and faded bluish-green, like a bleached turquoise. Her eyes were blue and piercing, and Steven realized it was because she wasn't wearing her usual translucent visor. Her outfit was different as well, though her yellow star was still there, it was located on the sides of her shoulders rather than her chest. Her hair was probably the biggest change, instead of its usual diamond patten, it was let down, and flowed to the middle of her upper back, with a messy pony tail on her forehead, obscuring her gem.

"Peridot?" Steven asked. His eyes alternating between the mysterious figure and Lapis, whose face was blushing and gasping as she pressed both hands onto the force field. "You're not our Peridot, aren't you?"

"Yes and no." she answered, her voice was the same as the call earlier, and Steven could hear a deep sadness within her.

She put a hand to her forehead and brushed it aside, revealing a shiny Peridot gem. But it was a bit smaller than Peridot's gem, and rather than triangular, it was oval, as though rounded and smoothened by something.

"What happened?" Steven asked. "Who are you? Why here?"

Peridot looked down, her hair flowing down her shoulders. "It's a very long story... And I don't have much time." she looked around, the temple around her switched back and forth between its two states. "But... you do deserve to know."

"I am Peridot." she gulped, trying to suppress her emotions. "From the future."

"The future?!" Steven interrupted.

Peridot chuckled. "You didn't change at all." she looked back up, a bit less sad. "Yes, the future. I was dropped in the middle of the ocean. I know you two were trying to find me. But in my timeline, you never did. I washed on shore and had to find my way back." she explained. The temple started switching back and forth more rapidly. "I found this temple, and then using its time bending properties, I found my way here." she gestured towards her complicated crystal machine. "The temple is alternating between the future and the past, allowing it to exist in both states at once, and allowing me to be here."

Steven's eyes were glowing with excitement. "That's so cool! So you came back in time to live with us?"

Peridot went quiet. The silence filled the temple, the only noise being the gentle hum of the crystal machine.

"She's no coming with us, Steven." Lapis interjected.

"No." Peridot raised her hand forward and opened her palm. Inside was a green triangular gem. "This is your Peridot. I came back to find her so she could live the normal life I didn't. So you wouldn't have to live..." Peridot sniffled, fighting back tears. "Without me." she rubbed the back of her hand against her eyes. "But I don't belong in this time." she looked back at her machine. The alternating time periods were starting to go faster and faster, alternating several times a second.

Peridot drove her hand forward, and it phased through the force field with no problem. She handed the past gem of herself to Lapis and Steven.

"Are you sure you don't want to come with us?" Steven asked, a bit disappointed. "You must've missed so much being under the sea in the future! Wouldn't you want a chance to live through it?"

"Oh, you don't even know, Steven." Peridot's eyes were watering again. She pushed her arm further. "Just take it, live your life with your Peridot." her hand was shaking.

"Peridot..." Lapis said, her voice was quiet. "Are you really sure? You don't sound like you want to stay in the future."

"She probably has her own Steven and Lapis who're waiting for her back home." Steven turned to his blue companion.

"Yes, what Steven said." a tear rolled down Peridot's cheek.

"Fine." Lapis turned to Steven. "Steven, let's go."

Steven was conflicted. Something here didn't feel quite right. He stared at Peridot, at the gem in her hand and then back to Lapis. The temple around them was flashing between two time periods back and forth so fast it seemed like they were one mashed-up temple. The entire place began to shake.

"The present is about to take over. The water will soon rush in and wash over this place. Please Steven... just grab your Peridot and go." Peridot pleaded him.

Steven's own eyes began to water. With a decisive movement he grabbed onto Peridot's wrist. The bluish-green gem looked up at him.

"No." and with one powerful motion, he pulled her close to him into the force field. As around them, the illusion of the two temples collapsed, and water was once again rushing into the building.

"Let's go." Steven looked her in the eyes. Lapis was just as shocked as Future Peridot. "All of us."

The warp pad was activated before the water managed to drown the three of them, and they were off.

There was a long silence as Peridot looked around through the abyss of the warp paths. She was quiet, as though in shock. Steven was still holding onto her wrist.

They arrived back in Steven's house, and the three of them stepped off the warp pad. Peridot's legs touched onto the wooden floor, she was still shaking.

"I'm sorry I picked you up like that, but I don't think you wanted to stay in the future. Is that true?" Steven asked her, but Peridot remained silent.

"There is no future Steven and me, right?" Lapis asked, her voice a bit more stern, but also very sad.

"R-right..." Peridot whispered.

"Peridot..." Lapis put a hand on her shoulder. Peridot looked up at her, blushing, and Lapis blushed back. "How long were you in the ocean in the future?"

Peridot didn't say a word, but as the two stared at each other, she nodded.

"About a million years."


End file.
